I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Little Richard definitive 3-CD box set coming from Specialty/Concord

Directly From My Heart: The Best of the
Specialty & Vee-Jay Yearsfeatures 64 classics and rarities spanning the mid-’50s
through the mid-’60s. Set features 36-page booklet with notes by Billy
Vera.

Photos
courtesy of the Specialty Archives

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — In the
early ’50s, Little RichardPenniman
combined the spirit of church music, the barroom-hewn raunch of blues and the
swing of New Orleans jazz and turned it into something altogether new — rock ’n’
roll. When the Macon, Ga. native signed to Art Rupe’s
Specialty Recordsin Los Angeles, he
was in turn dispatched to New Orleans to record at Cosimo’s
legendary studio. Over the course of several sessions, the Little
Richard sound began to develop around hits like “Tutti Frutti,” “Good
Golly Miss Molly,” “Long Tall Sally” and “Lucille,” to name a
few.

On
June 2, 2015, Specialty Records — a unit of
Concord
Music Group — will release Directly From My Heart: The Best
of the Specialty & Vee-Jay Years, an all-new three-CD box set
containing 64 songs that chronicle Richard’s Specialty and
Vee-Jay years — 1956 to 1965. The collection contains Richard’s
classics as well as B-sides and rarities. Also included is a 30-plus page
illustrated booklet featuring a handful of rare photos plus new liner notes by
singer/songwriter/music historian Billy Vera.

Many artists
begin their career on small labels and work their way up to the majors.
Conversely, Richard began his recording career at RCA Victor,
brought to the label’s attention by an Atlanta DJ. There he released four
singles, no hits among them. Next he signed to Don Robey’s
Houston-based Duke/Peacock Records, initially as part of the Tempo
Toppers band and later as a solo. The solo sides remained unreleased
until Richard struck gold at his next destination, Specialty Records.

It was at New Orleans’
legendary J&M Music Shop that Richard chanced upon
Specialty’s New Orleans A&R rep, Bumps Blackwell, who
brought him to the attention of Rupe in Los Angeles. On September 14, 1955,
Richard, Blackwell, and New Orleans’ R&B “A team” of
session players (Lee Allen and Red Tyler,
saxophones; Huey Smith, piano; Justin Adams,
guitar; Frank Fields, bass and Earl Palmer,
drums) went into Cosimo Matassa’s studio on Rampart
Street. Sadly, despite the roomful of talent, the session was, as Vera
describes “an exercise in commonplace.”

An unexpected bout of magic
would shortly ensue. As Vera writes, “During a lunch break at the Dew
Drop Inn, Richard hopped up on the piano and began shouting out a
ribald tune he always performed, usually in drag, for those college boys, ‘Tutti
Frutti, Good Bootie.’ Blackwell’s eyes lit up, for the first time hearing
something special in the entertainer. Spotting local songwriter Dorothy
LaBostrie across the room at another table, he asked if she could clean
up the naughty lyric for public consumption. She did so back at Cosimo’s and,
‘Wop bop-a-loom-bop alop bam boom,’ a hit and a career were
born.”

Over the next
two years, Little Richard went on to place fourteen songs in
the Rhythm & Blues top ten. These include his iconic performances of
“Lucille,” “Jenny Jenny,” “Keep a Knockin’” and “Good Golly Miss Molly.” The
astonishing fact is, all these classics were recorded within a mere 18-month
period.

Richard
continued with Specialty until 1964, when he was brought to the
attention of Chicagoans Vivian Carter and Jim
Bracken — whose first initials formed the name ofVee-Jay Records. Having freshly lost
both The Beatles and The Four Seasons, and
having lost control of the company in a move to the West Coast, the label was on
its final legs. It didn’t help that in the studio Richard used his road band,
the Upsetters, who were not quite studio quality at a time the Wrecking
Crew was setting the standard. On top of that, the Beatles had broken
big, and a fellow flamboyant Georgia native named James Brown
had broken onto the R&B scene with a brand new bag. With a young
Jimi Hendrix on guitar, Richard recorded a Don
Covay tune (Covay had once been employed by Richard as his chauffer and
opening act), “I Don’t Know What You’ve Got But It’s Got Me,” which reached #12
on the R&B chart. The song was done in James Brown’s style
and briefly brought Richard back. However, music had changed, and the R&B
sounds of the day were now emanating from Stax and
Motown.

Little
Richard continued to make records for South Los Angeles’ Modern
Records, CBS R&B
subsidiary OKeh, Brunswick,
and briefly, Specialty again
(in 1971), before signing to Reprise,
where his “Freedom Blues” cracked the Top 50 pop and Top 30 R&B. His peak
recording years behind him, Richard remained on the scene into the ’80s and
early ’90s as a colorful personality.

Vera elaborates: “Changing his
look, wearing an outlandish wig, outrageous outfits and letting his large
personality come out, he became a sought after guest on talk shows, like
Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas,
taking over every conversation and talking over even the hosts. Couch potato
America loved it and high paying concerts followed.”

In recent
years, the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Hollywood
Walk of Fame star recipient has stayed closer to the homefront. But the three-CD
set Directly From My Heart: The Best of the Specialty & Vee-Jay
Years is a reminder of the time, place and circumstance that helped
define rock ’n’ roll.

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